The Interpreters' Newsletter n. 27 - 2022

The Interpreters’ Newsletter of the Dipartimento di Scienze Giuridiche, del Linguaggio, dell’Interpretazione e della Traduzione, Sezione di Studi in Lingue Moderne per Interpreti e Traduttori (SSLMIT) is an international journal promoting the dissemination and discussion of research in the field of Interpreting Studies.

This paper explores the perception held by 135 students from two Spanish universities in their third, fourth and fifth years of study, on the conceptualisation, preparation and use of terminology glossaries. Respondents answered a series of questions about their experiences in preparing and using glossaries in their translation and interpreting courses. The methodology consisted of a questionnaire divided into four blocks of open- and closed-ended questions, aimed at identifying the use of glossaries in the interpreting classroom, to define their content and structure, as well as the importance students attach to this tool. The data obtained revealed that while glossaries are regularly addressed in translation, interpreting, documentation and terminology courses, students fail to perceive the full potential of this tool as a way of collecting the information necessary to understand the context in which the interpretation is to take place.

In this paper, we explore a strategy for teaching undergraduate American Sign Language/English interpreting students about discourse types and genre boundaries. To do so, we describe a project-based learning approach employed with a cohort of second-year students, detail the assessment method, and analyze students’ work. Specifically, the project required students to read a scholarly paper in the field of Interpreting Studies and create an American Sign Language video-recorded reformulation of the paper in a different discourse genre (e.g., a television news broadcast or a product infomercial). The findings indicate that, despite exhibiting a concerning lack of American Sign Language proficiency, students demonstrated remarkable creativity and critical thinking abilities. Students created video-recorded reformulations that incorporated salient points from their assigned articles while also applying principles of discourse analysis learned throughout the semester. Taken together, the findings suggest that applied discourse analysis projects and inter-genre reformulation activities can be used as a part of valuable pre-translation and translation training.

This paper focuses on stress management in consecutive interpreting students. In particular, it investigates the effectiveness of a theatre workshop in improving consecutive interpreting students’ skills and reducing their stress levels. The study is based on previous research on stress, stress management, and the idea that some basic theatrical techniques can reduce the stress of student interpreters, as such techniques may improve, among other things, public speaking skills. A didactic experiment was carried out by conducting a theatre workshop with students enrolled in a consecutive interpreting university module. Trainee interpreters’ performances before and after their participation in this workshop were video-recorded and analysed exhaustively according to a series of previously defined research categories. Results show that the students performed better in consecutive interpreting after the workshop, both in terms of stress management and non-verbal communication. Therefore, it can be concluded that theatrical techniques are an effective and creative didactic experience in interpreter training, and that even a crash course can trigger noticeable skills improvements in interpreter trainees.

Physiological indicators of stress such as galvanic skin response, cortisol, and heart rate are gathering momentum in cognitive translation and interpreting studies. Heart-rate variability (HRV) is gaining ground as a possibly reliable indicator of stress for tasks that do not involve physical activity. However, using electrocardiography and photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors in research involves following methodological guidelines to prevent negative impacts on data. We performed an observational, exploratory study on HRV in onsite vs. remote interpreting with interpreters (n = 5) with no experience in remote interpreting. Data was collected with Empatica E4 wristbands, which use PPG sensors to measure heart rate variability. We report results, yet our focus is the methodological issues derived from using heart rate (HR) and HRV as indicators of stress that we encountered both at data collection and in the analysis. We will formulate methodological recommendations regarding HR, HRV and (1) the characteristics and size of the sample; (2) the structuring of data collection sessions; (3) the selection of stimuli; (4) its relationship with other variables; (5) the selection of heart-related indicators; and (6) statistical analysis.